- Phil Hughes’ hamstring problem was compounded when he sprained his ankle exercising in Tampa, setting his return back another four to six weeks (ugh).

- First Arod made the cover of the New York Post for going to a stripclub with a ‘mystery blond,’ then Wednesday night he yelled at Toronto’s third-baseman causing him to drop an easy pop-up. Now his wife apparently moved out.
As for his ‘bush league’ play the other night, I don’t have a big problem with it. I know I’ve seen plenty of other players do it over the years, but it happened to work this time because the third-baseman was a rookie. The Jays are ripping him, but do they remember Jason Phillips’ shove of Josh Phelps that cost the Yanks the previous game? Or look at it this way: if Jeter pulled the same stunt, he’d be lauded for ‘gamesmanship,’ ‘smart baseball’ and the ‘drive to win.’ Arod is simply a lightning rod.

- Daisuke Matsuzaka had another poor start! I really wanted the Yanks to get him, but not so much now (and especially after the $51 million posting bid). Yeah, he’s had a few great starts against mediocre teams, but he’s been incredibly inconsistent (4.83 era) in what’s normally the best season for Japanese imports (their first year). Mostly they fall off after their rookie campaign, so (fortunately) Matsuzaka might fare even worse next year. Of course, it’s not good news for Kei Igawa either, who got rocked in his second minor league start on Tuesday (5 ip, 4 er). If both of these pitchers fail (to meet expectations), will it prevent outrageous posting fees in the future or dissuade other Japanese pitchers from entering the bigs? My guess, no and no.

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